aid

Etymology 1

From Middle English aide, eide, ayde, from Old French eide, aide, from aidier, from Latin adiūtō, adiūtāre (“to assist, help”). Cognates include Spanish ayuda, Portuguese ajuda and Italian aiuto.

noun

1. (uncountable) Help; assistance; succor, relief.
   He came to my aid when I was foundering.
2. (countable) A helper; an assistant.
3. (countable) Something which helps; a material source of help.
   The human is so poorly designed for aquatic adventures that he cannot even see in the water without artificial aids. 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, page 16
   The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone[…]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read. 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
   Slimming aids include dietary supplements and appetite suppressants.
4. (countable, Britain) An historical subsidy granted to the crown by Parliament for an extraordinary purpose, such as a war effort.
   In this parliament was granted to the king for defence against the Scots two aids and two quindecims, the which two aids did not extend over two quindecims. 2019, Julia Boffey, Henry VII's London in the Great Chronicle, page 71
5. (countable, Britain) An exchequer loan.
6. (countable, law) A pecuniary tribute paid by a vassal to his feudal lord on special occasions.
7. (countable) Alternative form of aide (“an aide-de-camp”)
   Suddenly, the general's aid entered the room and walked in a straight line, coming to a halt in front of the desk, standing at attention, waiting for the general to recognize him, allowing the aid to speak. Robert Michael Wills, They Came from the Drain (page 206)
8. (countable, chiefly in the plural, horse racing) The rider's use of hands, legs, voice, etc. to control the horse.

Etymology 2

From Middle English aiden, from Old French eider, aider, aidier, from Latin adiuto, frequentative of adiuvō (“assist”, verb).

verb

1. (transitive) To provide support to; to further the progress of; to help; to assist.
   Smith is aided in his quest by an elfin, time-jumping alien with psychic powers played by another Coen brothers veteran, A Serious Man star Michael Stuhlbarg. May 24, 2012, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club
2. (climbing) To climb with the use of aids such as pitons.
   Rather than climb into a bottomless off-width crack, we aided an 80-foot A2 to A3 crack to the top of a pedestal. By very tenuous face climbing, we gained entry to the crack, which we followed to a tree beneath the big chimney. 1979, American Alpine Journal, page 193